Adopt A Platform – Make your volunteers shine!

Civic Hub strives to empower local communities by providing a digital platform to connect volunteers, businesses, and government agencies in order to increase social capital. We believe in fostering community relations through a meaningful Civic - Tech - Government community dialogue, collaborative planning, and resource sharing. We offer technical support and guidance for engaged residents to enact change within communities through societal development.

Over the last several years Civic Hub has been developing the 'Adopt A *' volunteer program with the City and County of San Francisco. The flagship of this program has been the Adopt A Drain project. Launched in 2016, it allows San Franciscans to "adopt" some of the municipality's 25,000 storm drains by volunteering time keeping it free of debris.

Adopt A Drain project was started by Code For San Francisco, a local Code For America brigade. It was modeled on Adopt A Hydrant project developed by Code For Boston earlier. The prototype was an overwhelming success and project was taken over by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

This grassroots effort remains a crucial part of the city's commitment to maintain storm drains - a critical part of the utility infrastructure. Volunteers help to maintain the health of the environment by preventing pollutants from entering streams and ultimately the Pacific Ocean, which in turn protects fish, marine mammals and other wildlife.

In 2018 SFPUC reached out to Civic Hub with a proposition to extend the platform to other types of volunteer activities, namely Adopting a Rain Garden. As a part of ongoing development of green infrastructure in San Francisco numerous Rain Gardens were created, and so the new program was born.

Civic Hub's commitment to fostering and expanding environmental stewardship is now reflected in the Rain Guardians Program (SFPUC), where volunteers help maintain city-owned rain gardens and landscape areas around the neighborhood. Such engagement improves the quality of life in the community making it cleaner and safer for everyone in it.

Here are the examples of programs using Adopt A * Platform in San Francisco:
Adopt A Drain [active program]
Adopt A Rain Garden [active program]
Adopt A Street [inactive program]
Adopt A Street Park [inactive program]

We are working hard to expand the "adopt" line of community engagement projects. Adopt a Street, Adopt a Stream, Adopt a Hydrant, Adopt a Forest, and Adopt a Beach are just some of the possibilities. Help us shape a better world! Join the volunteer effort!